Solar Cell Manufacturing Technology

Are you talking about a large-scale solar power station?

No, only 10kW to 100kW range modules for farm houses and houses.

What I will like to do is to manufacture solar panels and want to set up a manufacturing business on technology transfer, machine and material support, a complete turn key solution.

Factory to produce large number of such panels. It is an industrial plan.

I was afraid you were going to say that. The short answer is that you would be doing more harm to the environment due to the fact that solar panel technology is still hopelessly inefficient. You will always use more energy and resources than you will generate from existing solar technologies, and this is not even taking into account batteries and solar inverters and all the other little things that are required for a complete system. It just doesn't work and will never work with current technology (don't be fooled by smoke and mirror subsidies and bad math ignoring all the variables and real costs).

It may become viable in the future with new developments which increase the cell efficiency and GREATLY decrease the energy and resources required to make the cells. Lets just let the research and development continue on solar cell technology and wait until a viable product is available.

Now, one thing that DOES actually work is solar hot water heating (radiant solar energy heats water running thru network of pipes). No electricity involved.

We have power problem in India. Power from government is cheap subsidized but does not flows in the wires.

There is little air in the mid India. Oil and coal are expensive and are not good substitute.

As an industrialist, I look for easy installation of solar panels on roofs of houses. They will take no extra space. Houses are already very hot so taking away some power will cool them and is a gain.

People use Lead Acid batteries already as there is lots of power cut. Hence, that is not going to affect things. All batteries are reprocessed including the smallest one. Vendors come door to door to collect these used items and when you buy new battery you can sell the old one for 30% of the original battery price. This is not a bad exchange. I have exchanged my inverter batteries every second year of use and for two years they work fine.

Solar power is not cheap so only rich in India can purchase. However, they can become free from many problems like power cut and loss of precious farm goods.

Direct solar energy collectors are also used here and at some places food is also cooked using solar cookers. India is very rich in solar energy so it is all worth using it. Indians generate little waste so we don't have problems of western world. We have our own problems of energy in small way and this is just one of the solution.

India is planning to go nuclear power in a big way and for that they accepted all terms of USA government and will sign agreement with any one to get Uranium. I am not sure if we will get what we want but we can not be ignored also. We are bound to become supper power of the world in financial terms and billion people can easily support million people of any country. In ten years we will be 2 billion people here, greater than anywhere you see on earth. Out of these very large number of them are engineers. India is waking up just now and is in the start up phase. As you have said about the environment and pollution, I also fear that these things will also creep up in time and we will find some solution also.

Shyam,

First of all, your trying to get too big, you need to look at 2 to 5 kW units. You will also need to look at producing some liquid fuels to run modern farm equipment which would greatly increase farm productivity. A farm is an ideal place to salvage biomass for the production of these fuels, both liquid and gas.

Two places to look for work already being done in your range:

This group has been working on this for quite some time and is somewhat like the Peace Corp but is a non-government non-profit organization; http://journeytoforever.org/.

The other is work I am doing. it is about 50% complete and I am willing to share with everyone freely, without any fees; http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~chtank/homepower.html. You will see that I have relied heavily on the USA Department of Energy and the USA Environmental Protection Agency. I have, also, been searching out those manufacturers who offer a glimmer of hope that functional affordable module will be available in the near term. In addition, I am activly looking for people like you who would be interested in developing the units for installation in exactly the way you wish to use them. I see two modular skid units, one for the solar cell/hydrogen generator/fuel cell and one for the methane/alcohol/syn-gas production.

Please give http://journeytoforever.org/ and http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~chtank/homepower.html a fair reading to see if there is anything in the two sites which might help you along with your dream.

There is nothing big or small in it. All it requires a thin film deposition on glass in less than 10mx10m space to run a huge production line factory. There is no dirty processes in it. Investment yes, and for money, people invest for sure.

Understand the way world is moving faster than your engineering jobs and if you do not gear up then in 10 years things will be out of hands. There are billions of dollars poring in India and China each day and on ideas to manufacture. Here, we have low salary, low production cost and everything to gain for the money invested.

If you start th same thing in your country perhaps you may go mad. It is not so in India. I do whatever I like to do here and I change to whatever I decide. All it takes some money and dedication. I can convert my farm house to a factory in 24-hours. You may need million dollars for that to have lease agreement.

Why don't you check out Suntechnics. They're a German company specialising in Solar Technology and they've a branch in India as well.

Check them out at - www.suntechnics.com

Solar Cell manufacturing plants are going up everywhere. I suggest you type 'solar cell manufacturers' in google. However, what type of solar cell are wanting to fabricate? Research is ongoing and cells of low cost/low efficiency and cells of high cost/high efficiency are being developed daily. To date however, the cells being manufactured are in the price range of $4.50/watt and this is independent of cell efficiency. The goal for solar cells is to run in the range of about $0.50/watt. I am speaking in US $. As the efficiency goes up and the price per watt goes down the solar cell will become more and more competitive with fossil fuel powered generation, but only while the sun shines. You will want to find a way to store you sun generated electricity, too.

Why not simply type 'solar cells' in google and do some research into what you want. It might be cheaper for you to look at the cells being manufactured already internationally. Since you are in India, you might find British Petroleum interested in striking up a deal with you since they are big in the solar cell play. I think labor costs could be a major player in such a deal. After all, all it takes is money.

In India, there is greater demand now and price fits well for those are in higher income group. 30% of India population is in that bracket, which is of the size of USA population. As India will become 2 billion people in 10 years and all young and rich, I think it will double the market. It is something that sells here.

Hi Shyam,

Applied Materials is putting up a plant for Moser baer, Noide based on Thin film technology.For more details contact

Mr.Arun Shivaram

Senior tech manager,Solar business group

Applied materials india pvt ltd.,Bangalore

09845276262,arun.shivaram@amat.com

To know more about AMAT logon to AMAT.com

Regards,

Sandhya Arun

Dear Sandhya

Thanks for information. I think their plant will be in 100% export zone and not meant for India at all. Noida export zone is near to my place (300km) so I can talk to them.

There is scope for 100 and more such manufacturing plants in India alone. I think the war has just began and many more players will enter the game.

Photovoltec is using a technique developed at IMEC.

Try to contact them and find a way of being licenced to use the same techniques and IMEC's knowledge. The IMEC knows how to make quite decent PV cells, (16% effectivity and higher) they will also find a way to make cheap regular cells with limited production techniques. (or it is a challenge for them)

I have the same approach from Turkey and would like to install a manufacture plant in Turkey.However,having technical advances every day and decreasing the investment costs per W,your manufacture may become immediately obsolete.Thats why I am watching R&D in the world.As soon as efficiencies of solar cells reach to stagnation levels and investment cost/W becomes bottom levels,I would like to set up that final technology in Turkey.So lets keep in touch.

Hi Shayam,

OTB solar provides complete solution for solar cell manufacturing,for further technical info u can contect Mr Sanjay Khar at sanjay.khar@otb.nl, Mean while u can have a look at www.otb-solar.com .

Regds,

Shashi kant sharma

Yes, I will look into their thin film technology and machine they use. I am right now collecting information from various sources to compare the technology and cost of the production line machines.

Thanks.